Hometown of Charles Ives featured in ‘Beyond the Score’

Director of Photography Brendan Hubbard frames what will become a spectacular backdrop to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. 1 of 34

Gerard McBurney with Nancy Sudik, executive director of the Danbury Music Centre, next to Ives' childhood house. 2 of 34

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St. James Episcopal Church, completed in 1872 on Ives' block. 6 of 34

Detail of St. James Episcopal Church in Danbury. 7 of 34

Soldiers' Monument, a Civil War memorial dedicated in 1880 when Charles Ives was five years old. Ives lived three blocks from this square. 8 of 34

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A friendly welcome on Main Street. 10 of 34

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Many church steeples dot the horizon. 12 of 34

Main Street, across from Ives' birthplace. 13 of 34

A plaque denotes the corner where Ives' birth house originally stood. The house has since been relocated three times. 14 of 34

One of Danbury's many banks now stands on the site of Ives' birth. 15 of 34

Decorative brickwork on a building constructed near Ives' home in 1886. 16 of 34

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The track on which Ives traveled between Connecticut and New York throughout his life. 18 of 34

A trail circles Bennett's Pond at the base of the mountain where Ives often composed. 19 of 34

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Director of Photography Brendan Hubbard at Bennett's Pond. 21 of 34

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Stone walls dating to the 18th century abound in the surrounding area. 24 of 34

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The rhythm of this woodpecker is heard across the mountain. 26 of 34

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The view from Pine Mountain, where Ives loved to compose. 29 of 34

Ives reportedly detested the noise of airplanes. The sky above the mountain where he loved to compose is now a popular training ground for pilots. 30 of 34

Brendan Hubbard adjusts to the light with a polarizing filter. 31 of 34

Working from afar with colleagues in Chicago. 32 of 34

Interstate 84 opened seven years after Ives' death, reshaping the landscape and economy of Danbury. 33 of 34

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Beyond the Score’s creative director Gerard McBurney and director of photography Brendan Hubbard captured sights and sounds from Fairfield County, Conn., where the composer Charles Ives was born and spent much of his life. Ives’ Symphony No. 2 was featured in a new Beyond the Score production at Symphony Center on April 25 and 27, 2014, conducted by Sir Mark Elder.

Famous for his unorthodox composing career (he was an influential insurance executive by day), Ives wrote music with prescient and iconoclastic harmonies that sound as innovative today as they did to his contemporaries. Particularly meaningful to Ives were the soundscapes of his hometown community, and the mixture of sounds made by man as echoed through nature.

View the gallery for a behind-the-scenes glimpse as McBurney and Hubbard gathered footage for the “digital set” of this new production. Photographs by Cameron Arens.